


Playing To Lose

by darkhavens



Series: Losers Ficlets [3]
Category: The Losers (2010)
Genre: Gambling, M/M, brief mention of underage kissing, counting cards, unconventional seduction techniques
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-07
Updated: 2014-08-07
Packaged: 2018-02-12 03:45:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 437
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2094456
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/darkhavens/pseuds/darkhavens
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cougar's tired of waiting for the new kid on the team to make a move, so he plans his own form of unconventional seduction.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Playing To Lose

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [this prompt](http://fic-promptly.dreamwidth.org/235912.html?thread=9461128#cmt9461128) at Dreamwidth's [fic_promptly](http://fic-promptly.dreamwidth.org) comm:
> 
> The Losers - Cougar - counting cards

He got his affinity for numbers off his abuela, who always said the math gene must've skipped his father and been replaced with a fertility gene. Three sets of twin girls in as many years just wasn't natural, she used to tell him, but at least by the time he came along four years later - lucky number seven, all by himself, and a boy, a son, at last! - his parents had both been well and truly broken of all their bad child-rearing habits and were just grateful to not have everything happening in stereo for once, bills included.

When he was twelve, he caught mono off Tonio Menendez, one grade above him in school, but almost two years older and vastly more experienced when it came to kissing. It hit him harder than expected, and he was stuck at home for over a month, under the care of his abuela while his parents worked. She taught him double entry book-keeping, probability theory, how to manipulate statistics like a true statistician. And then she taught him how to count cards like a Vegas pro, a skill she made him promise to never use for evil.

Cougar isn't sure if what he's doing right now counts as evil, because for once in his life he's playing to lose, and he's losing well. Jensen, the new kid on the team, has just picked up the card Cougar discarded a moment ago, and now he's trying not to bounce in his seat while he waits for Pooch to take his turn. If Cougar has read things right, and correctly manipulated the game, _just a little_ , then Jensen's about to win the pot and let Cougar take him out for celebratory pancakes.

Pancakes, not sex, because Jensen hasn't caught on to the signals Cougar's been subtly trying to telegraph this past month. The rest of the team caught on pretty quick, but not Jensen. Sharp as a tack and whipcrack smart when it comes to computers and other tech, he's almost defiantly blind when it comes to picking up what Cougar keeps trying to lay down. And it's not that the kid isn't interested; he watches Cougar like a hawk when he thinks he won't be noticed, and the tips of his ears blush hard when he inevitably is. But he doesn't seem to realise that his interest is reciprocated. So.

So, cards. And then pancakes. Cougar defies anyone to be able to resist temptation in the form of Carlos Alvarez and a stack of pancakes drenched in real maple syrup, with berries and whipped cream and a whole lot of fork-licking.


End file.
